TV's instructions to Vjism

Front cover of Viewmagazine.TV, Through the Eyes of Child.

Showing is Veronique then 13, who today will be 28. You don't need to have worked in TV, I say but you can borrow from its language.

I'll write more on this this week.

Tale of two differing era journalists - digital vs traditionalist

He was respected in television, working for one of the most respected programme makers in the UK.

The other equally ambitious has started his tentative journey into broadcasting with a big bang.

It is the tale of two journalists, digital versus traditionalists and today presents the most starkly differing paths in which both now plough.

Today I heard from both acquaintances - one of them someone I have been mentoring

He young working as an intern is now a researcher for one of the biggest brand names in global broadcasting. Someone who's name is synonymous with world class.

And by all accounts talking to my mentoree on the phone, he's made his own personal brand quite something in the few weeks in tele. For in the short time as a researcher he's pulled in some heavyweights to the programme such as Kofi Annan.

When I just finished speaking to him, he'd just come from his employer's office, who'd offered to write him a reference, if he needed it.

"If he's willing to say something on tape so you can stick on your site that would do", I said.


The New Rules
Rule 101: When looking for a new job do it from a position of power, when you're working and on a high.

Rule 201: In today's climate it's far better to build a one page site and email a prospective employer with a 3 para letter and link to your work. Keep it very short.

Showreels and letters don't really work as well and cold calling, whilst bril, can sometimes leave you hanging.

Email, then follow it up. This is something I tell my Masters students all the while

Rule 301: don't expect to hear back from your source the first time. Email again later and then again.

Trad journalists
After twenty plus successful careers in broadcasting my other acquaintance I heard from today is retraining in social care. But in the meantime as I learned today he's cabbing.

It's giving him he says the flexibility to work his own hours.

There is nothing wrong with being a minicab driver. It is a much in need profession for many people who need to get around.

But I suppose it's not something you have in mind, after winning media awards.

I understand the thin line that divides broadcasting ( something you enjoy doing- it's not really a job) and anything else ( where you realise the strain).

We've all been there and will continue to tread these two finely separated paths.

For the fact is media/ broadcasting was mooted as a young person's game in the 90s. Today it is nothing less than a young person's world; the pay, the hours and the rewards.

But I can't finish without this news. Forty years of working for one of the world's most formidable news agencies, Peter who took compulsory redundacy has found a job as a lecturer. Never say never.

Rise of the super blogger and possible erosion of core journo values ?

Air JetLiner Crashes into Sea

November 1996, one of the most potent images by a tourist (pre- citizen reporter)
became the subject of a broadcast bidding war.

Could the "them an Us', broad attrition between broadcasters and super bloggers, become an imploding force between emerging bloggers and the rise of the super bloggers?

And how the clamour for superdon is eroding one of the basic tenants of journalism practice, attribution and sourcing. Does that matter or is it time to seek a fresh way of attributing material, beyond external links?

A two parter which culminates in the Alchemy of Journalism.
_____________

Image from WeMedia 2006

Everyone of us starts somewhere, most of us at the bottom.

Broadcasters have made strong claims on citizens' offerings from the Zapruder film and before then, to the more recent tragic events in Mumbai, here clipped on Journalism.co.uk.

Two years ago I shared a stage with the Director of BBC News, Helen Boaden.

We got onto the subject of citizen contributions. It's not a new phenomenon, citizen journalism, I said, broadcasters have always relied on the Joe and Josephine public for contribution.

Boaden, like so many broadcaster who've been finger-wagged for not being CJ friendly enough agreed.

What is new, I added later of stage, and where broadcasters have been founding wanting has been the level of plurality and recognition in using this source.

Looking back even the wisest sages in broadcasting will say they didn't see it coming.

What the most 21st public pioneer of this form, "Oh My News" did was to not only prove there could be an honest brokerage of information without mal aforethought, but it could work en masse.

Because before then for every News summit convened for global broadcasters, the Net was an irrelevance.

Nothing New Then
Back in 1994 Channel One, a UK VJ outfit positively encouraged them.

It didn't have a large pool of reporters and so I remember several occasion soliciting video.

The more memorable was corralling an American tourist's video in Earl's Court when she emerged from a stationary smoke-filled underground train with pictures.

In November 1996, working at WTN, one of the most potent images by a citizen reporter became the subject of a broadcast bidding war.

The video was shot by a South African couple on their honeymoon on the Comoro Islands, East Africa, whilst lying on the beach.

125 people died on Ethiopian Airlines flight 961 including Africa's leading, and one of the world's most respected cameramen/,photojournalistst, Mohamed-Mo-Amin.

On scene reporters
The boon in the "every reporter within us" and the largely unfilled web 2.0 knowledge gap from broadcasters and publishers adverse to change, has been a major contribution to the rise of the this 21st centuries philosophers.

The successful media savvy ones often have backgrounds in the very institutions they're finding holes in, and deliver their missives with alacrity and a lack of pretentiousness. They are the super bloggers.

Many will admit that their openness is both their strength and weakness. The Net is all to play for.

It is an alchemists pen, pulling in consensus from the wisdom of crowds, buffeted by their own original thoughts.

Some of these are bound by grand theories, empirical or ethnographic research, otherwise their practitioners look to alternative and equally valid thesis which involves reshaping methods with antecedents.

The allure for superblog status appears intoxicating and what's emerging now is interesting in many ways.

• Broadcasters interaction with the (super) video bloggers.
  
• The Achilles for the meteoric rise in super blog status can often mean a loss of standard in journalism practice

Broadcast bloggers
The tragic events in India, in which twitters and bloggers, played a vital role informing audiences has some interesting characteristics.

Online, a number of bloggers/cj broke pictures with a number of traditional news sources as well as the blogosphere referencing them.

The link here to CBS and BBC World of an interview with a blogger seems to break far less ground.

The interviewer's aston/ super/ by line has changed to reflect this new standing, as the interviewee extracts witness/by stander information.

If you're a blogger/ CJ I would have thought it's high time a new code recognised this so any broadcast interview would reference your and url.

If you're good enough to be on air and you're trusted, you're good enough for a ping to your blog, though there's an obvious caveat here.

Also, that you should have a claim to the interview with the network so long as you are not selling the VT on.

Why? Because they the broadcaster will most certainly be running the VT with you ad infinitum for news gathering cred.

Gordian Knot for CJs
But herein with CJ lies an interesting issue.

A news correspondent on the ground will in their first minutes of contact on the scene do a couple of things.

• Look for eye witnesses
• Contact officials on the scene for facts, updates, injuries etc.
  
• Contact the office for latest wires etc.
• Assess broad areas of their story. What's passable/legal/ sound conjecture or otherwise.
  

All this before in minutes they'll be required to go on air.

I haven't looked at enough Mumbai tapes for the following point, it's more a generalisation.

But could the CJ be required to do the same or does the risk present itself for CJs to offer commentary based NOT on what they've seen, but what they believe. And yes I do acknowledge that Cjisms' modus operandi is not standardised.

However is this aforementioned acceptable? If the CJ has a background in international affairs and security, they're no different from the pundits wheeled into the studio, but if they don't?

This is really a matter for the recipient, the broadcasters, as truthfully a blogger may not be aware of what their role is going on air. Perhaps an agreement needs to be reached before doing so.

Difficult one as CJ by its very nature can be adhoc.

Every one's an expert
The second point is a more pressing one, which you've probably come across at the coal face training next generation journalists.

This is something I have also observed affiliated to the BJTC. That is the rise of the blogger and perhaps the correspondence quotient of the super blogger has blurred the lines with attribution and sourcing.

To that end it's easy to direct the language of blogging, comment and opinion, into news reportage, when we should still entertain the idea, "if you weren't there attribute". [I'm speaking here not of CJ/bloggers on the scene but often the many reporting reported stories.]

"The attacks in Mumbai have resulted in several fatalities" - how was this fact arrived at? Who first reported it? Was it from the television?

Because otherwise a trend extrapolation of this could see an erosion of any sourcing at all, or lead to the passing of unqualified material down the story chain.

This is something addressed in another way in Nick Davies book Flat Earth . In his case how PRs feed the story flow, which can easily contaminate the news flow.

Reputable broadcaster, publishers and bloggers will say they will never knowingly get to this, hopefully, but for a generation of new journalists coming through there lies the risk that supposition may simply become fact.

It's something a few academics I have spoken to are already addressing.

Post script: Proof however that Cj and attribution can work and very well is illustrated here

Next post
The Alchemy of a story. Using chemistry to formalise story telling and the parallels for observing empirical values.

The amazing Angela Grant creator of newsvideographer.com

The amazing Angela Grant creator of newsvideographer.com from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.
She's young, savvy and punches above the multimedia water line.

When I caught up with Angela Grant of News Videographer, I wanted to know how she got into the profession and her thoughts on how it was developing.

We're in Chicago - all having dinner - when I brought out my from my coat pocket the Canon IXUS 70. So the lighting is highly saturated and the sound tinny in parts.

There's a bit of a misunderstanding when I reply to Rob Montgomery of Visual Editors, whether modest Angela isn't being too magnanimous about her past and achievements.

Video News
What's truly inspiring here is Angela's candour as well as her understanding and creative wrestling of video journalism and multimedia - from her site News Videographer, and training programmes she's given.

If you're a journo student, trainee, pro or manager, Angela brings a level of discourse to this new form, which sets the bar.

The following day I interviewed her on the Sony A1, which I'll dig out at some point.

Why not hang up on the President

So by now you've heard the story and gawped or chuckled as well as Congress woman Ros-Lehtinen hung up on a prankster imitating President elect Obama, except that er, it was the president-to-be.

So then Obama's new White House Chief of Staff Congressman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, probably looking over at his boss likely mutters, "Oba give me it here".

He then duly punches in the number, gets to who he is ( poetic license here, as I have no idea what happened) and she Congress woman Ros-Lehtinen hangs up on him as well.

Bravo Congress woman, cuz you know the lengths these prankster will take to make a fool out of you and she wasn't having any of it.

When the matter is resolved, they apparently do what anyone would do, have double-bent, belly ache laughs about it.

"Damn you hung up on me"
"And I'll hang up on you again. Next time use the code".
"Er we don't have one
( Made that up as well... sorry!)

Phoney President (hyiaa sorry!)
In American President Michael Douglas playing the title role gets a similar salmon in the face when he rings up his love interest a lobbyist played by Annette Bening.

Yah, she hangs up on him, but the president has an ace up his sleeve.

Before you hang up on me again, ring this number, he says.

Brrrrr. Brrrrrring... briiing.

Hello is this Ms lobbyist you don't believe who we are, cuz this is the White House telephone exchange. Moron!

Obama: "Hey "W", could you do me this one favour, it's probably the only one I'll ever ask you so don't get wise-guy about it!"

For Obama, no such luck, just yet.

In South Africa, renowned theatre director, Alan Swerdlow a dear friend shared a block of apartments with Cheryl Carolus (who would many years later become High Commissioner to the UK.

She was high up in ANC circles so it was customary for Madiba ( Mr Mandela to us) to drop by. Yep I was sat on the lawn on one occasion.

One day her phone goes and Alan answers. " This is Nelson Mandela, please could I speak to Cheryl".

Don't do it
"**** off Peter", was Alan's reply, and puts the phone down.

You see Alan had a good friend who did the most exquisite Madiba impersonation.

Phone rings again and this time Cheryl picks it up and of course goes into deep conversation.

Later, Alan, looking ashen-faced learns Mr Mandela wanted to know who the charming man was that answered the phone.

My own faux pas is inconsequential, but when Sabine Streich, the organiser of the VJ awards rang me up two years ago to say: " er you've won", I too told her to "**** off, this is not a joking matter".

Her response was a good as one liners will ever be:

" I'm German, I don't joke!"

There!

Go West - Life is peaceful there ( media tales)

Go west, life is peaceful there, said 80s sensational Brit pop act the Pet Shop Boys.

Twenty plus years on, Go East, could be a more fitting lyric, particularly if you work in the media.

Tom, worked for ITN, Sky and a host of other broadcasts before in 2006, he was struck by that big plank of wood that falls from the sky with the inscription, BOREDOM.

" I was pretty bored, with it all. Same stories, predictable, the fun had gone".

He mentioned to his Greece partner, lets up stakes, sell everything, except the car and go to Greece.

That he duly did and then through a combination of adventure and serendipity, one of Russia's most renowned broadcasters came calling.

When it comes to constructive critiquing, Tom, also an ex-BBC knows how to play diplomatically with words.

If you're pitching to work for a future employer, tell em what's wrong, without being smug and how you could fix it, without being a know-it-all.

So with his house in Greece, Tom commutes every week to Moscow to work. Yep you can re-read that last sentence again.

Back in the UK
"So what brings you over to the UK?", I asked

" My car is registered here and it needs an MOT, so I drove it from Greece for an MOT and I'm now swapping it for something else"

"Ahh", I responded, eyes pinced, "are there no MOTs in Greece".

"No, it's registered in the UK".

"Silly me. What do I know"

We moved on.

"I think if you're in the UK or West, you could be looking to places in the East e.g. Russia to put together your new plan for global media.. yep think Global'?

This by the way is not alien advice. I have strongly advocated myself, based on my peripatetic career that travelling to new places is the stuff that strengthens you personally and professionally.

A couple of acquaintances have been asking me to come to Poland, Moscow and China, to name a few places.

Relocating, though takes more than a laundry list and "things to do in Denver, or Beijing" as the case may be.

What about Africa?
A couple of old Masters students are set on relocating to East Africa to try their hands working for an emerging publisher. We've been swapping interesting emails. "What can we expect for a relocation package?", they've queried.

Tom ( and by now you'll recognise I have left his surname out) says Russia is ideal. The economy is holding out and there's work for journalist, in which quite a few newly qualified ones have taken advantage.

But get ready for the culture shock, he adds.

At a time when the West is feeling the crunch, perhaps the East isn't such a bad idea after all. I'm thinking whether to consider the South.

Despite the short time we spent together, I really enjoyed the experience of recently meeting one of South Africa's most respected media managers, Trevor Ncube.

Go South! Doesn't quite have the same ring to it as the previous two.

what would you change redux - videojournalism profiles

Three years ago, I asked some of my Masters students if they could change one thing what would it be.

It was a simple shoot; a wine red backdrop with a flat light source did the trick.

What I like about it is it's archival quality. Something like this gains more currency as it matures.

A year later, whilst in Cairo I caught up with one of my now, ex-students.

Rania has gone on to become one of the youngest editors, let alone woman editors, in Cairo on an English Language Newspaper that's supplied with the International Tribune.

You can hear what the class of 2005/6 have to say by clicking here

Future spatial navigation - Minority Report

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Now while this looks cool, its the gestures that I'm keen on.

And in time if those gestures can work from speech patterns, then that would be interesting.

Walk into room and tell you pc to give you news on Arsenal, funding and news in brief on international issues on security. And then hey voila!

I spoke to Adam Clayton Powell III some time back, who gave me an insight into the work of his students at the Integrated Systems Center at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of California.

One of the applications, you can see it here, but the sounds not so good.

Students would track buses via satellites. For female students this was immensely desirable as they could stay in doors and see the very moment their bus was drawing up to the bus stop, then calmly walk down stairs.

Jack Bauer - eat your heart out. Actually Powell's students gave 24 the idea.

What's the bet Sky News has this up in a couple of months. Bye bye arcane vid!eo wall huh

OMG - Video journalism what!

I have been somewhat tawdry posting in recent days, and it'll probably slacken some more.

The last few days have seen me at the coal face in submitting 5000 words towards my thesis.

Everything from reading newspapers like the Hampshire Chronicle, (HC) from 230 years ago, to more contemporary excursions such as Jenkins H., Convergence Culture Where old and new media collide, New York University Press, 2006.

It's exhausting, because not least it involves challenging paradigms, or making sense of them and thus has involved reading around 50 different books.

Foucalt for instance asks: What is an author and how much is required of them?

In announcing the death of Lincoln, the HC, April 29th,1865, says:
Appalling and astounding news comes from America, such as never before was borne across the Atlantic.

Try such language in today's Times.

The past has very little to do with our busy lives, while we try and make do with the 'here and now'. But history throws up so many answers for how we might cope with events.

Nothing you could say is new.

It's relevant to politicians, which is why President-to-be Obama has recommended to his newly formed cabinet that they read the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. An item on this was broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today this morning.

New tools
New tools give us new ideas to cope, or even help us push ahead with new methodologies and there are copious questions still warranting attention within the media and journalism.

This morning two emails that should help provide an insight into how we are developing and the trends abreast came through.

Sadly and understandably I won't be able to talk about the matter, if any, until after the events.

But the first, International Video journalism Awards will give an indication of the trends in video journalism, while the RTS, Royal Television Society Innovation Awards, will illustrate other trends in innovation.

In both cases I've been invited to judge submissions.

Competitions like the aforementioned act as a repository for a wide pool of work, but we also know there's untold untapped talent who don't take these routes, for a number of reasons.

We find them online or stumble across their work. And as the web blooms farther and farther, and new talent enters the fray, its important they play the game: blog, twit, deli. and the likes, and aggregate with kith and kin.

You don't need validation belonging to any number of portal sites. Get involved yes, but then build your own citadel.

What becomes of interactivity and video journalism?

Creativity at the Smart Lab this Friday - inventing the future

I'm sat behind my terminal writing up 5,000 words to add to my thesis, then I went searching for references and came across this text right at the bottom of this post. It made me chuckle.

Its context is my starry-eyed talk I gave at the National Press Club in DC. Here one of the judges, Mark Hinojosa describes what happened as he was about to turn in for the night.

Now, I have to say this text I have included here has little to do with self -sycophancy, but more the experience of Mark's son and the notion of judgement, which is highly subjective.

Because, because you will or have probably built something and the odd person, sometimes, even quite a few people will pooh pooh it.

We all make great critics, but ultimately if you think you've got a hang on what you're doing and the audience, persevere.

That's not to say we shouldn't take advice. I do all the time. The wisdom of crowds is a great lecturer; one that's deployed at the smart lab all the time.

But rule 1 of creativity is you may not be able to please everyone all the time, so sometimes it pays to trust your instinct.

Like others, I have had the rare opportunity to work with some fabulous people in my broadcasting career, in some of the most respected broadcast companies e.g radio, TV, advertising, design.

Yet often posts over solo vjism or multiskilling often yield an interesting stream of emails.

Firstly, it's as if one is mutually exclusive to the other and secondly, that as a multiskilled journalist you can't master the "inception to air" work flow, which once involved five/six people.

You can, I'm still learning, but it will become a contracted cycle in this meta-existence age.

One day a pod might just shoot off to mars with one astronaut doing the whole navigation and cruising.

If you believe in technological determinism then this is the space which is expanding and reshaping what we do.

So this week I'll be heading off to the Future lab play shop, where everyone and anyone mixes and mashes it up and supposedly creates more mayhem. Nice mayhem, if you know what I mean.

Here's Mark :

Mark Hinojosa:
I have to admit that the first time I saw this when we were judging – they send out the entry list to the judges and we look at them at home – it was about the 20th thing I had seen and I was about to bag it for the night. And I got to David’s site and went, “Damn, this is interesting.” So I went and got my 14-year-old son, sat him down and said, “What do you think?” And I watched him navigate this, totally caught up in it. I mean he was just flying through it, reading some of it, clicking on it, making me think this has got something to show me.

I really encourage you to go visit this site, viewmagazine.tv, because one of the things that you’ll find in it is that David does a lot of the things we don’t do in traditional media. It’s a very point of view piece. There’s a lot of opinion. It’s very first person. It’s very much following the reporter’s experience through the situation. So you’re caught up in the storyteller aspect, not as the objective outsider looking down or the fly on the wall looking in on it, but as a participant moving through the experience. I find that very engaging, and I think it’s something that you all will find engaging, too.

More here

Condoleezza Rice - how luvely

BBC News presenter Fiona Bruce's bonhomie isn't always so expressive, so what did she mean with her quip about US Secretary of state Condoleeza Rice?

Ms Rice, a concert pianist, was today performing for the queen, whilst her Brit Counterpart David Milliband's opposite half was on the violin in the quintet.

The piece ended with Ms Bruce exclaiming: "How Nice!".

Was this Brit sarcasm at its ironic best or did Ms Bruce truly appreciate the spectacle?

Either way, I couldn't help giggling at the screen thinking: "don't you just love the English language?"

Are you a blogging linguist - Chapeau blogawards blogohpedia

Chapeau blogawards blogohpedia are looking for new and exciting words to do with the nomenclature of blogging and those that get accepted are given an opportunity to take part in the 2009 Chapeau Blog Awards competition.

So far some of the entries include:

• Blogcott - Boycott of a product or activity initiated on a blog and spread throughout the blogosphere by linking from one blog to another.
• Bloggernaut - One who spends a great deal of time in blogland
• Togger - A blogger who blogs about clothes and fashions.
• and my own 5 O'clock alpha waves thinking, Vlog Butterfly.

There's still a number of letters that need submissions, as well as existing ones that could do with that oft-thought obscure word, such as blagger, which I would have thought is a blogger who's very persuasive at getting their own way.

BTW it's also a Brit term around the same description.

or TWOCKER - a crim reference in the UK, but would do as a blogger taking without consent.

Anyways here's their details. Better hurry up as it's complementary before the 1st december for getting your word in and entering the awards

VJ awards deadline - a new style of videojournalism?

Video journalism the "it" thing at the moment.

Is there a new style set to emerge?
Will its maturity yield a new taxonomy?
Are the rules of video journalism specific to regions?
Do you need to put stand ups in the form?
And how can Vjism bring about a more expansive, credible, and innovative form of journalism in the wake of media closures?

While these specifics may not be answered, the entrants to the VJ Awards 2008/9 may give some clue to video journalism's maturity and direction.

The competition closes on the 1st of December from its already extended deadline. Your chance to win some cash and get noticed, but you'd better hurry with less than 24 hours to go.

Go here VJ Awards 2008/9

The amazing Angela Grant - Interview

Picture by John Davenport from Angela Grant's portfolio

Coming up this week, a video interview with the amazingly talented and humble multimedia journalist, Angela Grant.

Angela's site News Videographer has become required reading for anyone practicing multimedia and video journalism. It's a people's site, with Angela moderating.

I'm a big fan and caught up with her in Chicago, when she was a training at Camp VJ.

She's self-effacing and shoots way way above the time she's spent in her job, and like the pro she is admits she's still learning.

It never stops.

The interview I'll post either tomorrow or Tuesday is us ( Angela, Rob Montgomery an I) talking over dinner. It's a bit noisy, but Angela's answers engage you so much, you'll soon forget about it.

I shot it on my small palm size Canon stills camera. The following day I did a more considered interview on the Sony A1, which I'll have to fish out some time.

There are a few choice moments in this interview coming up.

On two occasions Rob an I get into a spirited discussion about Angela as if she wasn't there.

David: Angela are you being magnanimous?
Rob: I don't think she's being disingenuous
David: No, no, I didn't mean that.
Rob...

Meanwhile, Angela's looking on bemused as these two idiots (us) then look at her and realise what we're doing.

I'd love that as many students watch this only because, it's incredible when you realise Angela's been a multimedia journalist for two years, yet as I put it, it seems like she's been around for ever, which starts off another amusing dialogue between Rob and I.

Anyways, the amazing Angela Grant coming soon.

Have camera, will travel; travelogue Video Journalism and the Kwa.

Have camera, will travel - Travelogue Journalism.

Looking through my tapes, I came across quite a few labeled: Jordan, Turkey, Greece, Norway, UK and so on and realised they 're travelogue tapes from some of my travels, which I just haven't had the time to put together.

Undoubtedly, a key outlet for video journalism are programmes about travel and adventure.

Way back at Channel One, one genius of a Vj, Dan Rowland, made travelogue programmes his own.

Dan had that something that made you miss dinner to watch him: a vital point, as whilst anyone can be a VJ, not everyone has that kwa quality.

Dan Rowland covered Europe as a soloVj on a programme called Eurodan. The shot on the far left from 1995 shows Dan as one of the first VJs to perfect the walking Stand up/ piece to Camera.

The kwa - you can't buy or fake it, yet it's something an audience implicitly knows you have or don't and the more personal the programme the more the audience relies on the kwa to make sense of you.

And yes often the audience can be divided, but by and large that kwa is something that you can spot: a natural born performer and often it lurks amongst those who often are unaware of their star quality - that chemistry.

Have you got the Kwa
Dan was belly-ache funny. In the flesh, he was extremely like able, but give him a camera and he was Harry ''the travelogue-artist" Houdini Magic!

If Michael [ Rosenblum] can recall there were many times he had everyone in stitches and if I'm right Micheal wouldn't have said no to Dan joining his outfit. BTW if you haven't seen Michael's kwa [presenting], do

Some people have the kwa. And for some people the kwa takes up the room even before they enter.

Online, Amanda Congdon's kwa was certainly presenting Rocketboom, Christiane Amanpour's is in the front line of wars; and Noemi Hernandez, a News presenter on Spanish TV, a Masters student two years ago irradiates kwa personality.

I once met and shook hands with ABC's great Peter Jennings when I was news producer for ABC News in South Africa.

Peter Jennings was Kwa personified.

You can have many attributes:

• great reporting voice [incidentally have I told you the story about eating chocolates before going on air]
• great creative skills
• great reporting face, and they all matter

but without the kwa, well?

And the kwa is one of those things that can be hard to pin down. But, but, you do begin to develop an eye for it, working around others who have that 3rd eye.

And when you do it's instinctive. A creative music producer will tell you, that s/he can sense something in the opening bars, and take out their cheque by the chorus.


Looking for the kwa

Me, aged 11 at boarding school in Ghana. Check out the Michael Jackson "Off the Wall" pose. An appeal for the kwa?


In my broadcasting days, I led such a peripatetic life working with some key producers and directors within Channel 4, and BBC that I could see how commissioners made subjective judgements hiring around the elusive kwa.

Whilst working at the BBC, the editor of fabulously hipster Def II programme would tell us the reporting crew: "look straight down the lens and flirt with your girlfriend/boyfriend. Huh!

Believe me though if you weren't up for it, you got shown the front door.

In radio, one of my all time radio producer editors [BBC Radio 4] would say slow down and speak in your natural voice and just be yourself. If you had the kwa, you'd know.

I don't know that we (my co-presenter Cheryl Simms and I ) had it but we managed two years presenting on BBC GLR. Often it's easy to develop a chemistry kwa with a co-presenter which is why a lot shows double-head.

Rob Montgomery from Visual Editors has a wonderful mellifluous Kwa radio voice.

And then in teaching, some people have the kwa. They walk into a room and it's "nuff respect".

Ade a music lecturer at the University of Westminster consistently has herograms scribbled on a cards telling him how *****ing brilliant he is. Ahh the power of the kwa.

TV and agents work on the premise of a limiting the supply of Kwa-ites that way we the TV audiences are forever left wanting more.

Online obviously it's a different matter, and even if you can't don't have the kwa, you can always count on the long tail. Some one's bound to like you.

Travelogues are such personal essays, that the danger is what you might find interesting may not have the same value outside your immediate group of friends.

And if you have a nasal voice or a Tyson lisp, that might just prevent your kwa quality from shinning through.

Media is such a harsh terrain, particularly if you plan on being in front of the camera on TV.

Developing the kwa.

Some people have a knack of spotting the kwas.

A talent scout, your mother, Mr Jones - the second grade teacher. Sometimes those who've lived the life have a leg over, but that doesn't guarantee they'll be right, which is why critics and the public can be divided over a talent.

We may not like Simon Cowell, from American pop idol and X-factor, but more often than not, he's got the Kwa x-rays working.

So what do you do if you think you don't have it, but want it? Well a couple of things.

• Weekend acting classes - just for fun, but it'll bring you out of your shell and give you confidence and let us assess your strengths. Yes even though you want to work in TV!
• Work with Talent - Get Grandmothered or grandfathered as we say. Find someone who has the kwa and seek mentor ship. News presenters like Trevor MacDonald could pass on an encyclopedia of tips that gives you more chutzpah on air/online.
• Get your friends and yourself to be brutally honest. Thinking yourself brilliant is no bad thing, but then finding out you're not making any headway can be shattering.
• And don't worry about it, you can work behind the scenes making programmes - sod the kwa.
• And finally, be yourself. This media, online blah blah blah is transient. Fame is transient. There are no rights ( semantically) and wrongs - just opinions.

But here's a leaf I think comes out of Peter Jennings Kwa quality. Be humble. The bigger you get, the more humbler it pays to become.


Now what about those tapes from Jordan?

Mmm still can't find the time. But did you know spending an evening in the desert where it's deathly silent; no sound at all, is very eery. Whrreerr!

Politics - the whiff of a bad scent

A British politician is investigated by the police. They visit his home searching for evidence. His daughter is said to witness the event and is distraught. His wife is distraught.

The politician is held for questioning for 9 hours on the basis:

"on suspicion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office and aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office".

He denies any wrong doing.

The police, Special Branch, continue their search at the House of Commons;think the offices of a congressman as the equivalent.

The Home Office Minister makes it clear that Police independence is paramount and that the investigation is into a a series of breaches, systematic leaks from within a government department which handles sensitive information.

Did the home office minister grant the warrant for the search. She is not committed. But denies any involvement in the case.

Will she apologise for the way in which the police went about investigating causing distress to his family.

She does not commit. It is a police investigation.

Rightly or wrongly, there is a bad whiff about this.

Read here for one of the UK's most respected journalist's Joshua Rozenberg's take on this case. Very interesting indeed.

In the late 90s/ early 2000s I worked as a producer on a political programme edited by Andrew Brown, the brother of Gordon Brown, Prime Minister. Politics can often be predictable at the best of times, but I was wondering how we'd get our teeth into this, if the programme was still running.

Video Journalism at play

http://www.viewmagazine.tv/videojournalism_conf.html: what is video journalism?

Video journalism is the Bauhaus of television's news' pictures - a shift away from the staid 3:6:9 approach television has stuck to doggedly.

At its best use it usurps the ideal of standardised pictures, discarding order and predictability instead for self expressionism and a leaning towards auterism.

As a movement the form merges a graphical and photo journalistic stanza; a poster cover depiction of the moving image, where each shot matters, each shot counts.

If Capa lived to capture images on light- weight, hi-tech cameras, he'd be the classic video journalist and his dictum that if you're not close enough you haven't got the shot would still count.

Unlike television news, VJism mimics the language of film making [cine-vjism], itself predicated on the frame-image[ c.f storyboarding]

**The New Rules **

Vloggers, video bloggers, will undoubtedly rule the net and indeed lead the charge in video journalism: their short, sometimes idiosyncratic, deliverables well suited for a medium in which time is compressed.

It's acknowledged that video journalism has its roots in a number of early forms; the advent of film itself, yet more specifically from the likes of Slim Hewitt, a one man camera man/producer at the BBC in the 60s.

The use of video VHS, hi-8, and early digicams predates the meta-trans-digital age, which has seen video journalism come into its own, yielding divergent nascent forms.

Here, increasingly the construct of factual based features is being tested with offerings from solo VJ. Simply placing a television hit online, does not guarantee success.

The rules of contraction apply, as does manipulating the exposition in the visual essay.

Today in the new paradigm, video telling is also influenced by the paradigm and socialness of the web; the way we write, consume text, spider key words and inhabit the virtual world.

The equipment, whilst important takes ebbs in importance between primary and secondary importance. Knowing what you want without waste and eschewing churnalism is the key.

The USP is flexibility, individuality, immediacy and being light on feet.

Continued..

Video journalism is not a one-size-fits-all.

NB In Nick Davies' Flat Earth Video journalism is mentioned and how it's being used in Churnalism. Practising reporters/video journalists simply don't have enough time to double up on stories leading.

This was always going to be one of the dangers of video journalism from an exec's point of view. Here, in this report, one UK regional newspaper made the decision that VJs would not write articles and VJ at the same time.

Creative affairs at Wemedia

Been over at Wemedia - game changers - and in browsing came across the ff, which is pretty neat/cool/ok. You know what I mean.

Zefrank.com's Social network for two - Groovy animation against sing along track

Peter Gabriel's social news see it, film it, change it : Witness.org

Out of this world creatures. think Darwin meets disney: Spore

Giving to a cause and looking hip doing it: social vibe

If something's out there, beyond our galaxy - you'll likely discover the answer here: Seti

What can't you say about the Huffington Post? Obama go

For more good stuff go to Wemedia GameChangers . I'll post some more tomorrow

Damn it watch this. Iraq montaged through film and pics: reuters

Adieu she says

.. and so to another colleague who has just left the BBC to set up, I wish her all the very best.

18 years with the BBC, in almost all of the current affair departments.

Is she missing it. No she says.

After a while you cross the proverbial rubicon.

You either stay the course for the long game, the news animal you are.

Or you cut your losses and bail.

At 40 plus, the news beast hasn't got less ravenous and you aren't so zippy.

As another BBC bod put it, whom I now work with. I achieved everything I knew I could.

Now that's every reason to move on.

Now he's taking stock, a broadside view of the industry, and has a few ideas to impart.

Video journalism - BBC Interview. Deconstructing the snatch multiple angle videojournalism interview

Results - How to create a multiple angle interview in 3 mins from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

This is the interview above. And below a second camera shows how I made it. Here's some more tips below.



Untitled from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

David interviews Mary Hockaday, deputy head of BBC Newsroom

The r-o-interview which in Video Journalism stands for Reverse, over the shoulder, interview is one of the quick fire interviews every VJ should have as part of their kit of tips and tools.

In the second interview you see me move the camera to two outside -the-zone locations.

In most interviews that will do, though as you'll see from the further links to interviews below, there are at least four more spots to increase the arc of the film.

The arc of th film refers to creating a level of interest before the film flattens. It's a Hollywood term, as much.

At the point I ask a question, there's an L cut or split edit, so the impression is created that indeed the camera on me constitutes a second lens. In this instance I haven't crossed the line, but in many cases I do, but it's still hard to spot because of the parrallex affect.

Essentially crossing the line is a visualisation stunt the brain has difficulty rationalising. Done well however and it works to make your film more creative.

Watch Bourne or any of the contemporary films and you'll see how creatively it's done.


Deconstructing video Journalism some more
I have played with the gamma and some other areas to give the video a false sense of depth of field thus mimicing 16mm.

I have also constructed a slow zoom. This is for two reasons.

Firstly, the zoom , a movement-image affects the pace of the film. Remember the arc again.

Secondly, I'm masking what is not obvious in the film, a jump cut and the extraneous use of the hand held microphone.

If you look on the second video, you'll see where I have positioned the mic. Yep right next to me. This is where the purists lament my basic lack of techniques.

But the mic you see in question has no function for the interview.

It's what the interpreters on the left side of the screen are listening to for their translation to Russian, French, Serb etc. Sorry I should have explained, we're at an international seminar.

To a lay person therefore the microphone looks out of sorts so I have hidden it altogether.

It took 5 mins odd, 3 mins to edit, and 5 mins to upload. I spend 20 mins rendering the effects attached to the video.

If I had archive of Mary I would have dropped that into the film. It adds value, but has to be relevant to the subject.

Here, below are examples of interviews using tripods etc. For hand held and tagging interviews, hopefully another gig will come up when I can show how that works.

Interview Yahoo's VP for Product Strategy, Bradley Horowitz.

Interview Rachel North, who survived 7/7 bomb in London. An example of a quick snatch interview. We were on the same panel and I spoke to her soon afterwards.

By the way, there are no controls on this video. If you used Flash before 2004, then you would have noticed Flash did not have a player system. I'll redo this interview with a player at some point.

David Dunkley Gyimah is a jury member for the RTS Innovation Awards 2009 and International Video Journalism Awards in Berlin 2009. Currently a lecturer, he's been a broadcaster since 1987  working on programmes like Newsnight, Channel 4 News and ABC News ( South Africa) and has been a video journalist since 1994.  More